Evaluating the effectiveness of a self-developed financial education programme among primary school students in Hong Kong /

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Student Theses

2020

Lee, Edmond Kam

Hong Kong : The Education University of Hong Kong

Thesis

Individuals with higher financial capability not only have more savings, fewer debts and better lives after retirement but also exhibit higher life satisfaction, fewer depressive symptoms and more prosocial behaviours towards others. Unsurprisingly, financial capability has been regarded as one of the most important 'life skills' by parents, educators, spouses, employers and the community. Therefore, integrating financial capability into formal school curricula and students' learning journeys is important. Existing practices have emphasised the relevance of saving and spending to financial education but distinguishing between investment and speculation and sharing and donating has been gaining attention from educators. Most existing programmes, international or local, have been limited because they have focused relatively less on (a) the behavioural aspect of financial capability (e.g., how to save and how to control impulse buying), (b) the pedagogical approach to engage younger children and support their learning and (c) whether they were able to improve the financial knowledge, attitudes, behaviours and self-control and gratitude of the recipients. To date, no financial education programmes have been designed for and evaluated with primary school students in Asia, much less Hong Kong. The goal of this dissertation was to develop a programme that was comprehensive in content, suitable for younger children and effective in improving children's financial capability in terms of their knowledge, attitudes, skills and behaviours. The programme was called 'The 4S Programme' because it targeted effective saving, wise spending, distinguishing between speculation and investment and sharing. The programme consisted of 10 sessions of 60 minutes, equipped with a wide range of interactive pedagogical activities, including discussion, games, role-play, case studies and experiential learning activities. The programme was also equipped with simple, take-home worksheets that involved parents in their children's learning. To evaluate the effectiveness of the programme, I used a clustered, randomised, wait-list control design. A total of 136 six students from six local primary schools were randomly assigned into intervention (n = 71) and wait-list control (n = 65) groups. Students filled in questionnaires on their financial capability on three occasions, in a pretest and in two posttests, separated by approximately three months. The mothers of students also filled in questionnaires on students' financial behaviours. Mixed-group repeated ANOVA, based on students' own reports, revealed that students in the intervention group showed faster growth in financial knowledge, more positive financial attitudes, better abilities to delay gratification, more gratitude and more positive financial behaviours than did students in the wait-list control group. Mixed-group repeated ANOVA, based on mothers' reports, also revealed that students in the intervention group showed faster growth in positive financial behaviours than did students in the wait-list control group. The 4S Programme demonstrated innovation terms of its content, pedagogy and outcome evaluation, especially when compared with prior intervention studies

LG51.H43 Dr 2020eb Leeek

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